Former Nauru president Sprent Dabwido Photo: supplied
A former President of Nauru says he's amazed there is little international reaction against the treatment of elected MPs in his country.
Ahead of a July 9 election, suspended MPs are running again despite concerns over their future.
Sprent Dabwido said while he and two other opposition MPs had been charged for their alleged role in a protest a year ago, another MP, Roland Kun, who faces no charges, has been prevented from visiting his New Zealand-based family for a year.
Roland Kun was accused by the Justice Minister, David Adeang, of taking part in a protest outside parliament in June 2015, and his passport was cancelled as a result.
Mr Dabwido said the justice minister, David Adeang, had been the driving force behind Mr Kun's treatment.
"Mr Adeang has done everything in his power to keep Mr Kun stuck here on the island so he doesn't fly out, so it's a real messy thing and a real evil thing this minister is doing," said Mr Dabwido.
"That's cruel, that's not even politics, that's just rubbish."
Sprent Dabwido says the MPs were due in court on August 8, a month after the election.
In September last year the New Zealand Government suspended its funding of Nauru's Justice sector, with the foreign minister Murray McCully citing concerns about the rule of law on the island.
However, the Australian government, which supplies most of Nauru's aid and has one of its asylum seeker detention centres on the island, has said little.